Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-09-24
DAKOTA WHEAT HARVEST.
As Observed by a Visitor from
the Buckeye State.

n Buckeye state.
Correspondent Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
| Fort ToTTEN, Northern Dakota, Aug.
81 wish your old correspondent, who
wrote letters describing the soil and
climate of Dakota some fifteen or twenty
years ago, could see this country today.
In 1860 less han II thousand bushels
Of wheat were grown in the whole terri
tory; in 1880 nearly three million BUSH
els, and I haye no doubt this year will
reach over 5000, 900. [Returns from Al
counties in Dakota in 1855 showed yield
of 12,479, 9l9 bushels; from 7s9, 075 acres.
The number of wheat acres in 1886 in 45
counties was L. 9o,S79. Dakota's wheat
| yield for 1887 will reach Eel 10000. 600
bushels.-IID. INTER-OcEAN.] The most
Of this wheat goes by railroad to Du-
luth, and thence to Buffalo by boat. I
left Cincinnati August 2 to find a cool
place and have certainly found it here.
Rain has been very abundant through
out the season, and still continues. The
grass is as green and fresh as it was
| about Cincinnati in juno. The weather
is so cold that blankets are in demand,
the thermometer showing a record of
500 in tho evening. The inhabitants are
now in the midst of their wheat harvest,
and it is natural, I suppose, for them to
talk about the crop, and ask after the
great wheat speculator, whose fame has
reached here through your newspaper.
One farmer is of the opinion that there
are two kinds Of speculation, the legiti-
ment and the illigimate.
The first wheat deal that wo read Of
was perfectly legitimate. A man of
great wealth, named Pharaoh, many
years ago, made a very successful spec
ulation in wheat. lie employed his own
money and warehouses, and used as his
agent a man named Joseph. He ordered
him to buy all the products of seven
years, and the result of his sales proved
very satisfactory. This last speculation,
as told us by the newspapers, was not
only illegitimate and unsuccessful, hut
criminal also. The Spectator with but
little means of his own, opened a bank
of deposit, and after gathering all the
money of the widow and of the orphan,
of tho rich and the banker, he employed
a man named Joseph to visit Chicago
and buy all tho wheat that could be
found for sale.
This second Joseph did as requested,
but he found wheat SO abundant, that
after using all the money of his employ
er, he used the money of the bank also,
! 1,,N ex>@., r.rJ A1>oA AI- o1.ok .rl~~-A
added to that in store from other %
ces, as it arrived by cars, was too much
for his money, and the speculation
turned out a complete failure. Thous.
ands Of acres of tho land in Northern
Dakota consist of a dark, loamy soil,
particularly adapted 10 the growth OF
cereals. Great attention is paid to the
cultivation of wheat, but barley and
oats are also produced.
Dakota is only excelled in size by
Texas and California. The rolling as
well as the flat prairie is well adapted
for the most approved mechanical ap-
plianccs, and just now it is Il sight 10
see the large reaping machines, drawn
by three horses, cutting and raking the
grain into bundles as fast as two men
who follow after the machine on foot
can pick up the bundles and throw them
into small stacks ready for tho steam
t%hreshcr, which q few days hence will
prepare the grain for market.
Today I followed one of the new Nc
Cormick reapers through q field of bar
ley which was grown by Sioux Indians
upon land of their reservation here.
These Indians are fast becoming civil
, LIKED, and many Of them have large
fields of grain raised by their own in
dustry, and I hope that the government
will soon give them land in soveralty
} instead of one large piece called a reser-
walton, as they now have. A white man
drove the team, sitting upon a seat as
high as IN omnibus. Two Indians fol-
lowed and picked up the sheavcs us they
fell from the reaper, and put them into
small stacks Of about twonty bundles
each. Near by could be seen ten OF
twelve Indians with their squaws, look
ing on astonishcd at the work, so well
: and so rapidly done. \ Dakota wheat
farm of five thousand acres seems Il fac
tory where cereals are produced as you
look at the machinery at work, rather
than a tract of land dependant OIL the
!, old agricultural methods. It is worth a
trip to Dakota to see grain gathered by
machinery. This lake is a beautiful
sheet of salt water about fifty miles in
length and from ten to fifteen miles III
breadth, Astounding in fish, and tho hills
about its borders are covered with
beautiful forest trees, making the land
scape in this vicinity very beautiful. AT
one end of the lake is Deyils Lake City
and a steamer runs daily to this post
from there, bringing the mail and pas.
sengers who wish to visit hcrc. This
was the former home Of the antelope
and the buffalo, but all have been de.
stroyed and the wild ducks and othe,
watcr-fowls and the prairie chickens
are the only game now here, except the
fish, to attract the sportsman. s. So -
The summe hero is perfectly delight,
full. The days are so long that you car
: late as ninc o'clock in the evening, and
/ the birds are singing as early as 3o'clocI
. in the morning. "II.'
a few weeks ago n report came from
Virginia that bloody fluX was epidemic
i'll Amherst, Roanoke, Bedford and
Botetourt counties. The same day il
. was rereived Chamberlain e. % If To;